Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the federal NDP, to resign or stop supporting the Liberal government and trigger an early fall election.
Poilievre said Singh’s reason for joining the coalition government, to bring down food prices and make life more affordable for Canadians, has failed, by the NDP leader’s own admission.
He noted failings in the immigration system, including bringing in people at a rate higher than the growth of homes and jobs, inflation being the highest it had been in four decades, two million Canadians accessing food banks in Ottawa on Thursday. He also pointed to rising crime rates, the declining sense of safety in Canada, and the decriminalization of hard drugs as failures in the Trudeau-led NDP-Liberal coalition.
“(Trudeau) would rather that continue to be the case than to give up power. He will not quit. He must be fired, and the person to do it is Jagmeet Singh,” Poilievre said.“Singh sold out workers to sign on to this costly coalition. He has voted to hike the carbon tax to 61 cents a litre for policies to double housing costs and to tax food now,”
Poilievre noted that when Singh joined Trudeau’s government in a coalition, he promised to bring down food prices, but this month, he said Canadians are spending more and bringing home less.
“When you go into the grocery store and you’re buying your groceries, you’re spending more than ever before, and you’re leaving with less than ever before,” Singh said in Yellowknife earlier this month.
Earlier in the week, to promote the NDP candidate in an upcoming by-election in Montreal, Singh brought a nine-dollar bag of apples and a $70 container of baby formula to demonstrate the rising grocery prices.
“Again, that is after two years of Jagmeet Singh joining the Liberal government,” Poilievre said. “What’s clear is that Singh did not join to bring down grocery prices or housing costs, both of which have skyrocketed since he joined this coalition. He joined to keep Trudeau in power so that he could get his pension.”
Singh came into office on Feb. 25, 2019, to be eligible for his pension, which MPs are eligible for after six years of service. He will have to stay in office until February 2025, when he will be eligible for a $2.2 million taxpayer-funded pension.
Poilievre nicknamed Singh “Sellout Singh,” stating that he is selling out the Canadian taxpayer to endure more of Trudeau’s government so that he can reap the benefits of a tax-funded pension.
When a reporter asked Poilievre about the ongoing CN rail strike, he retorted that inflation caused by government spending and increasing the money supply is leading to the strikes, a move that Singh could prevent by cutting ties with the federal Liberal party.
“The reason that we have these strikes is because of inflation. We had last year the largest number of days lost to strike since 1986 what do we have in 1986? Inflation,” Poilievre said, referencing data given in a CTV interview with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce senior director of transportation. “Inflation leads to strikes because workers and unions have to fight to get back what they lost in purchasing power.”
He said the strikes are due to the government doubling its debt and hundreds of billions being printed under Trudeau’s government, which increased the money supply by 40% while the economy grew by 4%.
According to YCharts Canada’s money supply was around $2.7 trillion at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns and is currently at $3.7 trillion, representing a 40% increase in less than five years.
“When you add money ten times faster than you add the stuff that money buys, then you get inflation, and that screws over workers because they live off wages,” he said. “It’s all done with Jagmeet Singh’s support. He can huff and puff all he wants, but he supported the inflationary policies that destroyed the wages of working-class people.”
He said if Singh didn’t support the government’s response to the railway strike and the inflationary policies Poilievre says led to them, Singh would respond to Poilievres’ call to pull out of the “costly coalition.”
“I’m calling for him to do that today,” Poilievre said. “Jagmeet Singh, stop selling out the workers. Stop being Sellout Singh, put the people above your pension and vote for a carbon tax election now.”
Singh did not respond to True North’s requests to comment, though at a press conference in Montreal earlier this week, Singh said leaving the supply and confidence deal is always on the table for the federal NDP.
